Board Thread:Pokémon Help/@comment-31398341-20170703145512/@comment-27535813-20170713102754

tbh Cinccino is my favourite pokemon, but it's by far not good, and overrated as well.

Speed - Cinccino has a cool base speed stat being 115, but it is easily punished by many priority moves due to bad base defenses as well as even faster pokemon that use choice scarf or have 120 base speed+.

Attack - Cinccino has a decent 95 base attack stat and a cool hidden ability being Skill Link, but this means it can't really hit much without using its STAB Tail Slap(85% accuracy!) even with Life Orb(1.3x damage), and since other moves don't receive STAB and only receive the boost from LO, it doesn't necessarily mean it's a 100% kill.

Bulk(Defenses and HP) - Aside from the fact it's already bad, we should talk more about WHY it is further not as amazing as you think. To put it simply: Entry hazards + Life Orb recoil + Rough Skin/Iron Barbs(ability) + Rocky Helmet. You wouldn't want Cinccino to die... but too bad! Life Orb recoil doesn't help it any better and much less when entry hazards are prevalent in pokemon. Being withered down by stealth rock(which is fairly common in pokemon, doing 12.5% damage of HP) + LO recoil (10% damage of HP) = 22.5% HP just on the first turn you enter.

Nature - It's often a bit of complicated(and also not very complicated) matter on choosing between Jolly and Adamant nature. By having jolly, you have more speed at the expense of attack(since you boost speed instead of attack) and vice versa. Most of the time you would run jolly since speed matters more than your damage, so basically you do lesser damage in general by not being able to run adamant.

Moveset - In general, it's great having access to 3 multi-hit moves that provide nice coverage, but then you look at the fourth moveslot. Cinccino is one of the few that suffers from the four moveslot syndrome, where you have to always opt out 1 more move that you can't use which otherwise provides the coverage you need to hit.

Items - You mentioned being able to run LO but the recoil and 1.3x damage increase isn't 100% very appealing, but this only leaves it with another choice where Cinccino has to use Choice Band, which isn't any better either. Not being able to switch between moves sucks since Cinccino can best do that, but the 1.5x boost is also what Cinccino would want to kill things.

In general:

~Normal typing is okay, it's not an advantage neither is it an disadvantage.

~It's cute, but doesn't really change how your opponent will kill it.

+Niche use with Skill Link, 3 multi-hit moves, being able to anti-lead by removing subs, sturdy and sashes.

+Nice speed tier, since it can outspeed quite a number of things in general.

-Requires a free switch in, it's not gonna last a hit in 90% of the cases.

-Base 95 attack stat won't dent physical walls or steel types in general(since even if you were to run Wake Up Slap, it's pretty useless without technician).

-Nature and Item choice is subjective, because then you'll not be able hit as hard, hit as much or hit as fast.

-Compared to other Skill Link users(bar Ambipom; who also sucks), Cloyster and Heracross provide better typing, bulk and can actually kill.

-Passive damage is a thing, and Cinccino is already frail enough so that is annoying.

-Although in general moveset involves using the 3 multi-hit moves, the last moveslot is much to be desired as to what you really need on your team, and this makes it if Cinccino needs to provide coverage, utility or switching.